Thea Gilmore — The Counterweight (Deluxe) (2 Jun. 2017)

 ^{Thea Gilmore — The Counterweight (Deluxe) (2nd June, 2017)}  Birth name: Thea Eve Gilmore
Born: 25 November 1979, Oxford, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England
Location: London, UK
Album release: 2nd June, 2017
Record Label: Cooking Vinyl
Duration:     62:37
Tracks:
01. Fall Together     4:17
02. Leatherette     3:16
03. Interlude     0:21
04. Reconcile     2:54
05. Sounds Good to Me     3:23
06. Rise     4:56
07. Johnny Gets a Gun     2:59
08. Another Damn Love Song     3:45
09. Slow Fade to Black     4:22
10. The Lucky Hum     4:12
11. New     3:29
12. Here’s to You     2:51
13. The War     4:34
14. Shiver     4:05
15. Debt     2:07
16. There Was a Wedding     3:28
17. Walkaway     3:18
18. I Lift My Lamp     4:20
Review by Marcy Donelson
√   Singer and songwriter Thea Gilmore has said that she considers her 16th studio album, The Counterweight, to be a companion piece to her 2003 breakthrough, Avalanche. While that album was written in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, 2017’s The Counterweight addresses some of the political instability and acts of violence in a volatile 2016. “Johnny Gets a Gun,” for instance, is a response to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. With little patience for “boys will be boys,” it’s a percussive, chant~like number packed with technology and pop culture references (“Live like the Waltons, dream Tarantino”). Elsewhere, “Reconcile” was written in the context of the Brexit referendum, and “The War” reacts to the murder of Labour Party MP Jo Cox. Opening the album is the elegant “Fall Together.” A tender but ominous track, it starts with Gilmore’s voice over a simple, repeated piano motif, eventually adding electronic tones and string voices. With a cautionary tone shared by much of the album, it carries the drama of an early Bond theme (“I’ve got two little birds caged right here in my ribs/To keep them safe from saboteurs and arsonists”). Meanwhile, a song like the disco~tinged “New” is all about personal discovery. Despite some timeless subject matter and the fact that history has an ugly way of repeating itself, the album is very much of its time, both in the way it addresses specific events (though without explicitly naming them) and by making reference to things like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (all three make appearances here). Tonally, she counters urgency with some tenderness, and her voice only seems to be getting better with time. It’s a compelling entry in her catalog, one with a solid base of songs that will stand up to any nonsense.
Albums:
♣♠    Burning Dorothy (1998)
♣♠    The Lipstick Conspiracies (2000)
♣♠    Rules For Jokers (2001)
♣♠    Songs From The Gutter (2002)
♣♠    Avalanche (2003) UK      #62
♣♠    Loft Music (2004)
♣♠    Harpo’s Ghost (2006) UK      #69
♣♠    Liejacker (2008)
♣♠    Recorded Delivery [live] (2009)
♣♠    Strange Communion (2009)
♣♠    Murphy’s Heart (2010) UK      #70
♣♠    John Wesley Harding (2011)
♣♠    Don’t Stop Singing with Sandy Denny (2011) UK      #89
♣♠    Regardless (2013) UK      #39
♣♠    Ghosts And Graffiti (2015)
EPs:
♣♠    Instead of the Saints (1998)
♣♠    As If EP (Limited Edition) (2001)
♣♠    The Threads EP (Limited Edition) (2007)
♣♠    Beginners EP (Limited Edition) (2012)
Singles:
♣♠    “Saviours and All” (2001)
♣♠    “Fever Beats” (2002)
♣♠    “Juliet (Keep That in Mind)” (2003) UK      #35
♣♠    “Mainstream” (2003) UK      #50
♣♠    “Cheap Tricks” (2006)
♣♠    “Old Soul” (2008)
♣♠    “You Spin Me Right Round” (2008)
♣♠    “That’ll Be Christmas” (2009)
♣♠    “You’re The Radio” (2010)
♣♠    “Teach Me to Be Bad” (2010)
♣♠    “London” (lyrics by Sandy Denny) (2012) UK      #86
♣♠    “Love Came Looking for Me” (2013)
Website: http://www.theagilmore.net/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/theagilmore
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theagilmore
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theagilmoreofficial
√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√♦♣♠√ 

Thea Gilmore — The Counterweight (Deluxe) (2 Jun. 2017)

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